The Brazilian will play his final game at Anfield on Saturday, but what memories he will leave behind on Merseyside
It will be a day of farewells at Anfield on Saturday. From James Milner, the standard-bearer whose fingerprints and footprints are all over some of Liverpool’s greatest triumphs, and from Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, two big-money signings who never quite cracked the code on Merseyside, but who certainly played their part in the club’s recent success.
From Julian Ward, the outgoing sporting director who has spent the past 11 years helping establish the Reds as one of Europe’s dominant forces, and from Ian Graham, the hugely-respected head of research, and David Woodfine, the soon-to-depart director of loans. They won’t get the send-off the players will get, and neither would they want it, but their presence will be just as missed, away from the field.
The most emotional moment, however, will come when the Brazilian with the dancing feet and megawatt smile says ‘adeus’. Roberto Firmino, quite simply, is a Liverpool legend, and this weekend will only underline that fact.
It will be he whose face adorns the matchday programme against Aston Villa, he who the fans will want to see, and to score, more than anyone else. And when the Kop sings his name for the final time on Saturday afternoon, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
Getty ImagesEight years of magic
It’s been some ride for Firmino, who will leave Anfield when his contract expires at the end of the season. It’s been eight years of magic, you’d have to say. Of flicks and tricks and goals and assists, trophies and wonderful, wonderful memories.
Should he play against Aston Villa on Saturday – and if he is even 20 percent fit, he surely will – he will have clocked up 361 Liverpool appearances. There have been 109 goals, 72 assists and six pieces of silverware in that time.
What a signing, what a footballer. He was the man who made the Reds Club World Champions in 2019, the one whose big goals in big games helped end that 30-year wait for a league title.
He’s the one who redefined the role of a Liverpool No.9, who barely gave interviews, hardly spoke English, but whose character and personality made him adored by team-mates and fans alike. He’s the one who made ‘no-look’ finishes and kung-fu celebrations a thing.
He’s the one signed under Brendan Rodgers who became Jurgen Klopp’s favourite. Klopp would never admit that publicly, but just have a look at his face this weekend. He wanted Firmino to stay, and no wonder.
What a player he has been for him, and for Liverpool.
AdvertisementGetty£29m well spent
It is easy to forget now, given everything that has happened since, but Firmino’s start to life at Liverpool was far from auspicious. Bought from Hoffenheim in the summer of 2015, his signing soon came to represent the discord which existed between the manager, Rodgers, and the club’s scouting and recruitment team, the now-infamous ‘transfer committee’. He was seen, in many ways, to be emblematic of a failing system and a failing club.
After a difficult 2014-15 campaign, which had finished with a 6-1 humiliation at Stoke City, Rodgers had, to many fans’ surprise, been granted a stay of execution, with Liverpool opting instead to dismiss key members of the Ulsterman’s backroom staff.
Rodgers, desperate to reignite his reign, was keen to sign centre-forward that summer. Christian Benteke of Aston Villa was his No.1 choice, but the recruitment team, led by chief scout Barry Hunter, head of recruitment Dave Fallows and the soon-to-be sporting director Michael Edwards, had identified Firmino, and pushed strongly for his signing.
In the end, Liverpool bought both. They paid £29 million ($36m) for Firmino before coughing up the £32.5m ($40.5m) needed to trigger Benteke’s release clause at Villa. As one source put it, “it was a case of ‘one signing for the manager and one for the club’."
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s fair to say the ‘club signing’ proved to be the shrewder of the two.
GettyThriving under Klopp
Firmino’s early weeks were difficult. With Benteke being used as the No.9, the Brazilian began the 2015-16 season on the bench, and started only four games before Rodgers was sacked at the start of October. When he did play, he was deployed either as a wide forward, a No.10 or, in one ignominious defeat at Old Trafford, as a left wing-back.
Klopp’s arrival, though, would change everything. Firmino was injured for the German’s first game in charge, away at Tottenham, but within a fortnight he was starting as a centre-forward at Chelsea, playing a starring role in a 3-1 win against Jose Mourinho’s reigning champions at Stamford Bridge.
Klopp had seen Firmino at close quarters during his time as manager of Borussia Dortmund, and had been impressed when told that Liverpool had taken the plunge. “Smart signing,” he thought, and when Firmino grabbed his first Reds goal in a 4-1 battering of Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City at the Etihad, plenty were starting to agree with him.
He wasn’t a classic No.9, by any means. He certainly wasn’t a Benteke, whose game was about power and aerial prowess. But Firmino's touch, awareness and clever runs meant he could pull defences apart, opening up space for others to thrive.
That selflessness, that intelligence would come to define his time at Liverpool as much as any goal ever could.
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GettyThe famous front three
Of course every conductor needs an orchestra, and while Firmino’s first season at Liverpool was decent enough – 11 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions – it was only when Klopp began putting the pieces together alongside him that his brilliance began to truly shine.
First came Sadio Mane, signed from Southampton in the summer of 2016. The Senegal star immediately added speed, dynamism and goals from wide, winning Liverpool’s Player of the Year award in his first season.
Then, 12 months later, the Reds struck the jackpot once again, paying around £37m ($46m) to sign Mohamed Salah from Roma. It’s fair to say that particular transfer worked out nicely.
Together, Firmino, Mane and Salah laid waste to the Premier League, to everyone in fact. Their first season brought a combined 91 goals and a Champions League final – the semi-final first leg, against Roma at Anfield, is one of best performances any forward line has ever produced – their second brought 69 goals and European Cup glory in Madrid and their third delivered 57 goals, a European Super Cup, a Club World Cup and, most memorably of all, that elusive Premier League title.
By the time the trio was broken up by Mane’s departure to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022, they had scored 338 goals in five seasons together. A quite remarkable record, and one which makes all three of them, in their own right, bona fide Anfield legends.